Woodward said the number of rental unit has increased by 15 percent in the last 12 years.

“Due to the economy, many have decided to rent rather than own,” she said. She added that, because lending policies have changed, it’s harder to get a mortgage to buy a home. “Many lenders are requiring higher credit scores as well as a higher down payment,” said Woodward. “The uncertainty in the market also has made people more cautious. They have decided renting is a better option for the time being.”

Woodward said Bethlehem provides a variety of housing types for residents: “We have a strong home ownership base in the city, which is slightly higher than other urban communities in the Lehigh Valley.”

Easton

Easton, which has nearly 27,000 residents, experienced a nearly equal balance between rental units and privately-owned homes for many years, said Becky Bradley, that city’s planning director.

Bradley said 53.5 percent of Easton’s housing units are rentals—4,710 out of a total of 8,804 homes.

She said the number of rentals is not increasing dramatically, estimating there are between 10 and 50 additional rental units every year.

Bradley indicated rentals have increased since the Great Recession began in 2008.

She said some people who own homes decided to turn part of their house, such as the second floor, into an apartment to supplement their income, but continue to live in the house. Others moved out of their homes in the city because of job relocations, but rent them “because it’s not as easy to sell right now.”

Easton had about 4,400 rental properties in 2010 and 4,600 in 2011, said Cindy Cawley, the city’s chief codes administrator.

Bradley said it’s normal and healthy for a city to have a close balance between rentals and ownership. She said rental properties attract young adults who cannot yet afford to buy a home and older adults who no longer want the responsibilities of home ownership, such as yard maintenance. And she noted real estate taxes still indirectly are paid by apartment tenants in their rent.

Cawley said Easton also has its share of unscrupulous landlords who illegally are putting people in basements, garages or attics. “Some are putting in bathrooms and kitchens and everything.” But she said those units are illegal because there is only one way to get out of them in an emergency. She added that’s why bedrooms without windows also are illegal.

Cawley said some new apartments have been built in Easton and existing buildings have been converted into apartments.

Cawley and Bradley said one example is the Pomeroys building, which was mostly unoccupied for decades. It now has 22 apartment units, all occupied, with “a thriving French restaurant” on the first floor beneath them.

Bradley said turning upper levels of commercial buildings into apartment in center-city Easton creates a 24-hour downtown and keeps businesses open longer to serve the people who live there.

Another perspective

“To have a healthy downtown, you need a lot of people, which means you need to have apartments,” said Thomas Hylton, a preservation advocate who is president of the non-profit organization “Save Our Land, Save Our Towns.”

Hylton, who resides in Pottstown, said home ownership has been declining nationwide since it peaked just before the start of the Great Recession. “Huge numbers of people bought homes they couldn’t afford.”

He said not everybody can afford to own a home and not everybody needs to own a home. “There is a certain assumption that renters are less desirable than people who own homes, but that’s not necessarily true. They can be great neighbors.”

Hylton said the center-city areas of both Philadelphia and Pittsburgh have seen dramatic increases in residents and most of those people are renters. He said many are upwardly mobile young people and older people who are retiring. He added other renters could afford to own homes but choose not to.

Hylton said some older homes are too large for modern single-family residences, so it makes sense to convert them into “extremely attractive rental units.” And old factory buildings in many Pennsylvania cities often are perfect for conversion into apartments, because most have “almost no value for their original use: manufacturing.”

“To preserve a building, you need to have a viable use for it,” he explained. “Manufacturing no longer is a viable use for many of these buildings. So it’s either residential or commercial. There is much greater demand for residential than commercial.”

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